Ya Il2 is about it these days. I bought Rise of Flight, and while technically excellent (physics, environment, etc.) it's campaign is stale missing the small surprises like in RB when Lothar von Richtofen flies over your base and challenges you to a duel. Of course he brings friends even though he tells you to come alone

These games weren't (aren't? I still play RB3D) just combat flight sims, they allowed you to tell a story, your story, learn about significant historical events of the conflict in question(referring also to Aces Over the Pacific and Aces Over Europe), and have the opportunity to participate in historical battles.

I guess they spoiled me and sadly nothing has come close since. I play Il2 online to dogfight, but that's a different experience for a different mood.

Hopefully that involves interior damage modeling and visible flooding/injuries etc. Though i am not sure how they could pull that off, physic engines aren't really there yet...

Some this is in SH3 & 4, some busted pipes that leak water, fear on the faces of the crew, and altered handling of the boat, but it could be more sophisticated, yes.

Silent Hunter III was a beauty, but I gave SH IV a wide berth as it was supposed to be riddled with problems. here's hoping SH V is ship shape and Bristol fashion.

Frustratingly, many of the bugs in SH 3 were also in 4. Having said this, 4 is by far superior in graphics,crew management, damage modelling, and the campaign. As with 3, the mod community has done a lot of exceptional work to improve the sim.

I bought this game and will need to see a lot more dev support before I fork out more coin for additional planes.

My impression after playing it over the weekend is that this is what became of the IL-2 mod Knights of the Sky, with a lot of features missing from IL-2.

The gem in this sim is the models, flight modelling, physics, and sound.

The interface is atrocious and counter-intuitive, the campaign is not exciting (I don't believe there is any perisistence here, just randomly generated missions), and the multiplayer, as far as I can tell, is coop missions only, so if you die you have to wait for everyone else to finish the mission; no respawns.

I've already paid a premium for an incomplete product. Finish it and then we'll talk about me forking over more dough.

All companies are motivated by money Einstein, that's the entire premise behind a business, to make money. Stop acting like making money is a crime.

Sorry, that's not what I meant to say.

Of course they're in it for the money, so am I, but at any price? I guess what I'm saying is there is a lack of ethics. I'm sure corporations love indentured servitude and sweatshops. If they had their way they'd still pay us in chits redeemable only at their own company store.

I have a friend who used to work at EA for a long time, and from what I can see there are definitely no changes for the better there. The hate for EA is well founded imo.

I (sadly) work for a multinational corporation and in my experience to date they're all the same; they are motivated by greed, they will use you until there's nothing left and then they will throw you away. No one is indisposable. They proclaim how great their services are and cover up all the fuck-ups and complaints in an attempt to hide them from the clients/customers. Masters of snake oil. Oh, and you better have a team of lawyers if you decide you want to leave.

Can someone tell me what Games For Windows is supposed to do? I buy a TON of games, and I play a TON of games, and I'm still not sure what Games For Windows is. Is it a distribution system like Steam? Is it a multiplayer thing like Battle.net? Because as far as I can tell, it's just a logo on a box.

As far as I can tell from FO3 and GTA4 it tracks your achievements in the game, and in the case of GTA4, helps you track buddies; if they're online, which server they're on, etc. It also delivers patches/updates. Supposedly it will also be the vehicle by which downloadable content can be obtained, but I'm not aware of any being released yet. FO3 is supposed to have some available shortly. There's a "marketplace" similar to steam's store(?). Didn't really check it out, but didn't seem to be much there. There is a forum. I think that covers it

I like the game and really haven't had any issues with it until the latest patch which is causing some CTDs seemingly when I maximize the video memory use with the gfx options. Controls seem to be about the same as San Andreas PC, but I can't be entirely sure as it's been a while since I played SA. I don't have any complaints about the gfx, the gameplay is essentially the same, although it seems to be more story driven(?), not sure, only 30% through it. Multiplayer is a hoot.

Could it be better? Yes, but overall I'm having fun and glad I made the purchase